March 29 (Bloomberg) -- T-Mobile USA hired TAP Advisors LLC
to help sell wireless towers and raise cash for parent Deutsche
Telekom AG, said people familiar with the matter.

Deutsche Telekom appointed the New York boutique bank to
renew the search for a buyer after an aborted effort last year,
said the people, who declined to be identified because the
matter is private. The disposal may raise as much as $3 billion,
according to an estimate by Kevin Smithen, an analyst at
Macquarie Capital USA Inc.

Deutsche Telekom halted its plan to sell assets last year
after agreeing to AT&T Inc.’s $39 billion bid for T-Mobile. As
the deal collapsed in December because of regulatory hurdles,
Deutsche Telekom Chief Financial Officer Timotheus Hoettges said
the company would revisit the tower sale to help fund possible
spectrum purchases and network expansion.

“They lost a lot of time last year and that creates
urgency to find a solution for those assets soon,” said Jan
Goehmann, an analyst at NordLB in Hanover, Germany, who
recommends investors buy Deutsche Telekom shares. “This is the
logical next step.”

Deutsche Telekom shares declined as much as 2.1 percent to
8.94 euros and traded 1.8 percent lower as of 4:47 p.m. in
Frankfurt. The stock is still up 1.2 percent this year, valuing
Deutsche Telekom at 38.7 billion euros ($51 billion).

Self-Funding Strategy

U.S. tower operators American Tower Corp., Crown Castle
International Corp. and SBA Communications Corp. are potential
buyers, Smithen said. Philipp Kornstaedt, a Deutsche Telekom
spokesman in Bonn, declined to discuss who may be a buyer or
adviser in a potential sale.

T-Mobile has considered the sale as part of its self-funding strategy, said Michelle Taylerson, a T-Mobile
spokeswoman, declining to discuss details of the plan.

Fiona McKone, vice president of finance at Crown Castle,
and Lynne Hopkins, a spokeswoman for SBA Communications,
declined to comment. An American Tower representative didn’t
return calls seeking comment.

U.S. wireless companies, including Sprint Nextel Corp. in
2008, have sold tower assets to specialized companies that then
charge operators for using the infrastructure. Such tower
companies may be able to run them more efficiently by letting
various phone companies use them.

Job Cuts

Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile, the only large U.S.
carrier without the Apple Inc. iPhone, is lagging behind bigger
rivals and lost 1.65 million contract customers last year. The
fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier owns 7,000 antenna towers
in the U.S., Taylerson said.

Deutsche Telekom said last month it plans to boost U.S.
network spending by $1.4 billion over two years to win back
customers who want faster connections on their smartphones.

To make room in the budget, T-Mobile said last week it was
looking to cut an unspecified amount of costs by closing seven
call centers and eliminating 1,900 jobs. The operator is also
benefiting from a breakup package from AT&T following the
transaction’s collapse, including $3 billion in cash, wireless
frequencies in cities including Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston,
Washington and San Francisco, as well as lower fees for calls
into the rival’s network.